LOCAL authorities in Lincolnshire are being urged to ban the release of "flying bonfires" – before somebody gets hurt.
Nottinghamshire, Norfolk and Warwick- shire County Councils have recently implemented bans on releasing lanterns from council owned land.
Now the CLA, the membership organisation for owners of land, property and businesses in rural England and Wales, is calling on others to follow suit. And with an upsurge in use expected on New Year's Eve, the CLA fears that it is only a matter of time before there is a serious accident.
CLA East Regional Surveyor Tim Woodward said: "Sky lanterns are no more than flying bonfires. They are serious fire hazards and also endanger the lives of grazing livestock as well as other wildlife, and create unnecessary litter.
"Those releasing lanterns have no idea of the hazard they pose, nor do they consider the implications of releasing a naked flame with absolutely no control over where it will land.
"They have been reported as sparking RNLI searches for red flares off the coast of Skegness, while a car parked in a residential area in Scunthorpe caught fire when one landed on its windscreen last New Year's Day.
"Lanterns that land in fields can get chopped up when farmers mow for silage or hay, resulting in fragments of wire in the forage.
Cows, which naturally tend to chew things to check them out, get the wire trapped in their gut, resulting in a slow, agonising death."
Anyone with evidence of damage caused by sky lanterns is asked to contact CLA East on 01638 590429 or e-mail east@cla.org.uk
